Deewe Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 My opinions on DE are well known, and I will not repeat them here. I will only say I wish him the best and all of the success in the world. ^ This. Good luck to you Daniel, hope you'll do as good before TOR in your next game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goretzu Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 I don't know if it's good or bad really. And this does not directly indicate that they are "removing story". It is change however, which often distresses players, especially in forums. If you follow the breadcrumbs through linkedin, it's clear that they are reducing the size of the writing staff. If you already have plenty of story constructed and on the shelf (as has been shared by more then one posters in these forums as rumors), it's not a surprise really. You would need more assets to convert story into produced content, which means you juggle your staffing some accordingly. You don't need to retain a lot of writing staff and staff managment to do incremental writing or editiing of content in a game that is well into release. You need some good people for continuity and to form the basis of a major effort for an expansion or something like that. My guess is that this was decided some time ago, and that the reason we have not heard from Daniel actively for a while even though he is still on staff is that they gave some staff time to look for internal opportunities in other EA activities. Daniel has set is looking for other opportunities flag in linkedin, which does not definitively mean he is leaving (and he does not show has having left yet, so more likely in transition). I know you like to look at every thing that happens in SWTOR in the most positive possible light, but reducing story staff can't be good for the story in the future. Maybe it if was a dire failure, but it's arguably the best bit of SWTOR. It's expensive, it's time consuming to create.... but that was a well known reality before KOTOR was made, nevermind SWTOR. The most postive spin I can put on it is they are looking to move SWTOR away from their "4th pillar" and expand other sides of it (although I suspect in a WoW/Cashshop not SWG/sandbox direction). The most negative spin I can think of is that this is sounding (again) horribly like Warhammer Online's slide into maintance mode, Devs being shed like chunks of ice from a comet plunging into a star. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuixupu Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 My guess is that this was decided some time ago, and that the reason we have not heard from Daniel actively for a while even though he is still on staff is that they gave some staff time to look for internal opportunities in other EA activities. . I figure the same....I remember how many times he had said "People would be surprised to know how far ahead in the future the writers are at this point". My guess is he finished all the writing for all the content that had been laid out thus far, probably ending with Makeb, and is moving on, whether it's because he was let go due to downsizing, or if he didn't "fit in with the regime", or he was just disillusioned with the changes in direction/personnel, we may not know for a while. I don't plan on unsubbing out of fear of what may be...but when a day comes that I see my fears come to fruition in the game, I will indeed unsub and state my reasons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trenter Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 At this point, Daniel Erickson leaves, I might just join him and wait to see which direction they will end up taking this game when I peep back in after a few months, not a good idea to remove the man behind basically ALL of the story in this game, I can really easily see them having story in the very back of priorities where the 'pillars' are concerned along with things like crafting, and they just focus on endgame and PVP, which will lose all of my interest completely, KotOR 3,4,5,6,7 and so on hm? I'm with you on this and I might just do the same thing to be honest. I'm a big advocate of TOR and I think it's a great game, but if they're gonna start getting rid of the guys that originally came up with the vision of a true Star Wars mmorpg I'm just not interested anymore. Been hanging on these forums since they opened in october 2008 and Erickson has been a huge part of the journey up til now. True passion there. The way he talked about it. He was there right from the beginning, conceptualizing the game with Ohlen and a few others. If he's being forced away... nah, I'm losing interest. That new guy, Matt Bromberg, doesn't sit too well with me. I just a have a hunch that TOR, with him at the steering wheel, will end up in a place I don't want it to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
randalthorr Posted September 7, 2012 Share Posted September 7, 2012 Who here thinks James Ohlen, Daniel Erickson and Dallas Dickinson will form their own studio I do. That would be bloody epic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphinxes Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Wish all these guys would get together and form a new RPG company. Only in my dreams I guess.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 I think the whole team that invisioned this game is gone to be quite honest. I don't really think that many of them are there anymore. So ...we'll see what comes of it. When 4 of every 5 people who buys your product, stops playing your product, this is what happens. I'm hopeful that these will be positive changes for the game...it certainly won't get any worse than 2 updates a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imbrium Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Looks like the game will shut down and in the next year. We will know for sure if and when James Ohlen leaves BW/EA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarfux Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 You heard it right here from me. I have a hunch Dallas Dickinson, James Ohlen and Daniel Erickson are going to go found a new company that makes an EPIC rpg I can see that happening. I really can Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 You heard it right here from me. I have a hunch Dallas Dickinson, James Ohlen and Daniel Erickson are going to go found a new company that makes an EPIC rpg I can see that happening. I really can I don't mean to sound snarky, but...why on Earth do you think they are capable of creating anything better than this? THIS is their game. They had a MASSIVE budget and an ENORMOUS staff! They had EVERY resource they could possibly dream of...and THIS is all the better they could do. This game is THEIR vision. Why do you think they're capable of something better?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chyanis Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) I wish people would stop sacking people and also I wish people would stop leaving , it's getting very tiresome. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked. Edited September 8, 2012 by Chyanis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nastynas Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) This shouldn't be a surprise. As I said before, he and James have been way too quiet. It isn't as obvious as it was with Georg because he was far more active on the forums. Also, they've stopped the weekly Q&A's. I wonder how much of the $ ,effort and time went to figuring out how they could pull out a mmo with the beta hero engine? In the end did they just give up and thought 'Let's just throw it out to the Xmas market, make our money back on box sales and bail' If they have worked for another 6-12 months with the game they would have gone agains't new shinies like Gw2, Mop, Secret World, Tera and D3. They should have took their chances. The only two relevant titles there are Guild Wars 2 and maybe Mists of Pandaria. Edited September 8, 2012 by Nastynas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TUXs Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 I wonder how much of the $ ,effort and time went to figuring out how they could pull out a mmo with the beta hero engine? SWTOR had 800 employees at the height of their development. Simutronics, the company that developed the HeroEngine, has 25 full time employees. Do you honestly believe that those 25 employees had better resources and financing to finish the game engine that the roughly 800 that EA/Bioware employed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Selvec Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 After having played both TERA and Guild Wars 2, and having known about the existence of games like Dynasty Warriors Online and Vindictus (Pre-cursors to TERA's combat system), I can't really see SWTOR going for the long haul. MMORPG's are moving away from Tabbed combat, and the combat is a big part of this game, as it is with all MMORPG's. SWTOR unfortunately came out when other MMO's with better more revolutionary systems were making their mark, and since SWTOR took so long to come out with a form of gameplay that was being shunted out, it's never had a chance to make a decent stand. I like SWTOR. I absolutely ADORE Star Wars. But the competition has a leg up in terms of technology, and short of completely revamping the entire combat engine, a costly enterprise which simply won't happen, I can't see SWTOR hanging with the big boys any time in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuixupu Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Well, TERA wasn't exactly a smashing sucess, and GW2 is still an unknown factor for the long haul...seems odd to say this game can't compete against them. TSW just fired half their staff as well. The only MMO still drawing in millions of people is WoW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skorz Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) It also makes me really concerned about the direction of story content, and whether all the things he had talked about in the past will ever come to fruition now. Yeah I am fearing they wont be doing any story content anymore and that is the only reason I've stayed this long I am not interested in new WZ's etc. it is just the same crap but in a different skin. I'd rather see new features and the continuation of my class stories. Edited September 8, 2012 by Skorz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skorz Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) You heard it right here from me. I have a hunch Dallas Dickinson, James Ohlen and Daniel Erickson are going to go found a new company that makes an EPIC rpg I can see that happening. I really can Wasn't Dallas one of the guys that were behind the failure of SWG (NGE)? and you can see how well this game is doing too.. sooo.. I wouldn't be so excited about that team. Edited September 8, 2012 by Skorz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felioats Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 He's the last face on the team that the community knows well and respects. The frontman, if you will. Whatever is causing all the rock stars of SWTOR to bail, I don't like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianDavion Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 best not to read too much into this. for all we know he's just bucking for a promotion within BW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 best not to read too much into this. for all we know he's just bucking for a promotion within BW While I agree about not reading too much into this (sound advice for so much stuff that is plucked off the internet and pasted in the forums here), in this case it appears he is heading out of the company because James O. has written him a very recent postitive recommendation on linkedin. http://www.linkedin.com/profile/recommendations?id=5904835&authType=name&authToken=tbsK&goback=%2Efps_PBCK_daniel+erickson_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*2_*1_Y_*1_*1_*1_false_1_R_*1_*51_*1_*51_true_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2_*2%2Enpv_5904835_4293864_*1_name_tbsK_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1_*1 We won't know the specifics behind his departure from Bioware, but it's pretty clear a departure is in progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darvus Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 He's the last face on the team that the community knows well and respects. The frontman, if you will. Whatever is causing all the rock stars of SWTOR to bail, I don't like it. What is causing them to bail? Are you aware of the current state of the game? Would you stay on a ship that is sinking, when everyone there knows that you damaged the hull, to make it take on water? Some have clearly been let go, others, likely saw the writing on the wall. BW has already acknowledged the game failed to meet projections and expectations. Someone has to pay for that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jett-Rinn Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 You know after watching the man completely ignore simple things like Kiras Lightsaber bug or the music that will hardly ever play (no music in a star wars game really Daniel really?) and his whole "Lets woo the progression raiders despite the fact that they hate us" philosophy I'm not seeing a great loss. Whoever takes his place I just hope he or she works on fundamental embarrassing bugs that should have been addressed in beta one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Galanek Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Honestly, we can assume things and worry, but we don't really know much about the circumstances of this. Obviously he wasn't the only writer and I think that a main point of the game being storyline, it will continue to be implemented. Perhaps not the same familiar face, but as far as I see, until the game is gone things are still happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skoobie Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 Honestly, we can assume things and worry, but we don't really know much about the circumstances of this. Obviously he wasn't the only writer and I think that a main point of the game being storyline, it will continue to be implemented. Perhaps not the same familiar face, but as far as I see, until the game is gone things are still happening. Well he was the main writer that recently got promoted. From all the interviews I've seen, it seems to me that the story was his baby. And this may also answer the question as to why Bioware is giving the best part of the game away to F2P players. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EJedi Posted September 8, 2012 Share Posted September 8, 2012 (edited) Honestly, we can assume things and worry, but we don't really know much about the circumstances of this. Obviously he wasn't the only writer and I think that a main point of the game being storyline, it will continue to be implemented. Perhaps not the same familiar face, but as far as I see, until the game is gone things are still happening. If it was an excellent career opportunity, with years of stability and advancement potential, he wouldn't be leaving it behind. That says something pretty important. Edited September 8, 2012 by EJedi Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts